


Flowers In Her Hair

by sparkinside (boomersoonerash)



Series: 31 Days Of Tricks [15]
Category: Hanson (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Alternate Universe - No Band, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Alternative Universe - Kingdom, Brother-Sister Relationships, Brother/Sister Incest, F/M, Flowers, Holding Hands, Incest, Inspired by Game of Thrones, Kinktober, Kinktober 2017, Kissing, No Smut, Presumed Dead, Royalty, Sibling Incest, War, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 19:34:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12372561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boomersoonerash/pseuds/sparkinside
Summary: Avery and Zac spend time together before he goes off to a war that he may not come back from.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Sweet and Passionate

Avery laughed as she ran through the grass, Zac hot on her heel as he chased her down to the lake. A place that was wholly just theirs in this god forsaken kingdom. A place that no one else could taint or touch but them.

Surely not her mother who looked at her with scorn because she wasn't as pretty as her sisters Jessica and Zoe. Nor the gossip of the townsfolk who couldn't believe that the king was allowed to keep and raise his bastard son in his castle, where his wife didn't put up a fit.

Though, what no one realized was that her mom had put up a fit. At least those were the rumors she heard from the staff and various other lower ranking people in the castle.

Diana had not liked the idea of Zac staying with them of him being an equal to Isaac or to Taylor, but her father had won out. He had told her how things were going to go and that had been that.

Avery never missed that sometimes her mother looked at Zac with the same scorn she looked at her with. Maybe a bit more even, if Avery were being honest.

How could Diana not? Zac was the living breathing proof that her husband had cheated on her.

The man she had thought was supposed to love her, even though their marriage had been arranged for ages, had cheated.

More than likely with some whore at one of the many whorehouses in the town. Instead of letting Zac live with his mother in a whorehouse like other unfaithful kings did, Walker had brought him to their castle.

"Caught you," Zac called out as he tackled Avery to the ground which brought Avery out of her thoughts.

Another laugh coming out of her as she stared up at Zac. Her bastard brother who she happened to look more like than anyone else in her family.

Enough that Avery sometimes wondered if she were a bastard too and had been lied to her whole life. Though when she had mentioned it to Isaac once he laughed at her like she was some mad woman and then proceeded to tell her a long drawn out story of how he could vividly remember their mother pregnant with her.

Avery guessed if he remembered that then she wasn't a bastard. Even if sometimes she felt that way, knowing she didn't fit in with her family.

She wasn't pretty enough to be a princess nor was she graceful enough either. Her mother probably, at times, wished she had been a bastard.

"Only because I let you catch me," Avery smiled at Zac as their eyes locked. His smile taking over his whole face enough that Avery felt her heart and stomach do funny things.

"Which means something must be off with you," Zac teased her as he moved off her, laying on his back with a sigh. "You want to talk about it Avery?"

Shaking her head Avery scrunched up her nose before turning to face Zac, propping herself up on her elbow. "No," she told him knowing it was no use to tell him she had been thinking of him and his bastard status or how she sometimes felt like one.

He'd probably get angry and tell her it was nonsense because that was who Zac was.

"You know you can tell me anything Avie," Zac spoke as he turned his head to look at her before absently picking at some nearby flowers. "I listen better than Taylor or Isaac ever could and we all know Jessica is too self obsessed to listen to anyone but her closest friends."

"And Zoe is too young," Avery added on as she thought of their baby sibling. A girl who had been born years after Avery.

Long enough that Avery wasn't sure why her parents had waited so long to have another child.

"That she is," Zac agreed after he had picked the flowers soon handing them up to Avery with another smile on his face. "So tell me what your problem is?" he asked again being the persistent stubborn asshole that she knew and loved.

Taking the flowers from him Avery went silent as she slowly stuck them in various places in her hair. Hoping that Zac didn't see through her.

She knew she was using the flowers as a distraction to keep from telling him what was on her mind.

"You," Avery finally spoke her voice soft but not enough that Zac hadn't heard her because soon enough his face was scrunching up in clear confusion and Avery knew she'd have to explain herself. "I mean you aren't my problem. I was just...I was thinking about how you're a bastard and how sometimes I feel enough like one. I mean I don't fit in and I'm not as pretty as Jessica or Zoe. I'm no true born princess. I'll never be a queen like Jessica or even Zoe. No king would ever want me."

Zac let out a loud laugh at her words, "And what, because you think you're not as pretty and you don't fit in, that makes you a bastard too?" he asked her and Avery felt her cheeks getting hot under his questioning. "You think we even share the same whore mother?"

"No," Avery answered way too fast. "I know I'm not Isaac has told me as much," she admitted with a shake of her head. "I just, my brain is a silly place sometimes."

"No doubt young princess," Zac teased her.

Avery's cheeks got hotter at his words. She felt like an idiot for telling him what was on her mind but he had been the stubborn one. The one who had asked her.

"Why were you even thinking of me and my bastard status?" Zac questioned in her silence. "Comparing it to how you feel."

"Because I know you're leaving soon," Avery told him honestly as she looked away from his gaze. "I overheard Taylor and Isaac talking last night after supper. You're going off to join the war," she frowned as she thought of the nearly five months long war that had been going on with a neighboring hostile kingdom.

Some war started over something petty she was sure, but one she knew that could go on for longer. Months even years...and one in which he could die.

"I guess...I guess I don't want you to leave me," she confessed so softly knowing if her mother heard she'd have a fit. Maybe send Zac off sooner than he would be leaving. "You may never come back to me."

Zac frowned at her words as he moved closer to her, his arm reaching out as he pulled her down to him. Their faces so close that if she wanted too she could lean in and kiss him.

But she didn't. Held herself back from it because even if incest was a common practice sometimes among the royal family, it wasn't looked upon highly. Only happened in the most dire of circumstances like if an heir was needed and there were no other suitable mates around.

Avery would never have to worry about producing an heir, at least not for House Hanson. Maybe never for any house because no sane man would want her for their queen.

Not that she was sure she ever wanted to be queen. To just be a woman who was there to sit beside her husband and look pretty while giving him babies. No, she could easily make an escape in a few months on her sixteenth birthday if she wanted to.

Runaway and change her looks. Become no one.

"I'll come back," Zac whispered as he moved to let his forehead rest against hers. "I'll always come back to you. No one else in this godforsaken kingdom but you will I come back to."

Avery smiled at his words a lump forming in her throat. One she swallowed down as best she could.

"Promise me?"

"Promise," Zac whispered again and this time after he spoke he leaned in, being the one to kiss her.

It was a chaste kiss, but not a kiss that should be shared amongst siblings who shared the same father. Avery again sure that if her mother saw this she'd make sure Zac left before he had to. Send him off to join the war as soon as possible, in hopes he came back in a coffin.

That idea made Avery's heart ache because she couldn't lose Zac, not when he was the only one who saw her for what she was and loved her in spite of it. He didn’t hold her to expectations because he knew...he just knew what it was like to not meet them and have people frown upon you when you let them down.

Pulling away from the kiss Avery just stared at Zac unable to say anything at the moment. She was insure if it was the kiss that had taken her by surprise and rendered her speechless, or the fact that she had liked it.

Something she knew that shouldn't have shocked her since before he had kissed her she had been thinking of doing the same to him, but she had been scared to or afraid really.

Afraid because she knew that once she had kissed Zac the first time she'd want to again, and it was a sin she couldn't let herself have again.

"We better head back soon princess," Zac told her, and when he called her princess this time it wasn't as harshly teasing as before.

It was softer like somehow he saw her in a new light.

Avery sighed before shaking her head and laying back against the grass. The flowers in her hair coming loose slightly. "Just a few more minutes Zachary," she spoke as she reached out for his hand.

A smile playing on her lips when he threaded his fingers with hers.

"Just a few more minutes," he agreed though she knew he would. He could never tell her no. Not like he could Jessica or Zoe.

*****

Huffing Avery crossed her arms as she sat on her bed, having been sent to her room after an outburst that afternoon during sewing lessons.

An outburst that happened because she had gotten annoyed at not getting anything right. She kept messing up the lines in her stitchwork and so she had thrown the whole thing down.

Her mother, who had been in the room at the time, sent her to her room on the spot. The Queen telling her she'd be in there until supper time despite the fact that Avery wanted to be anywhere but in her room today.

If this were any other day she'd be fine with being here but today was the day that Zac was leaving. Heading off into a war that he may not come back from despite his promise to her that he had sealed with a kiss. A kiss that she hadn't been able to stop thinking of no matter how hard she tried.

Maybe that was all she'd have to hold onto now. Afraid that since she was confined to her room that Zac wouldn't say goodbye to her. That she'd never see her brother again.

Her mind starting to get carried away with her, silly thing that it was.

Though, before it could, the door to her room opened. Avery looked up,her arms still crossed over her chest, as her eyes landed on Zac.

A lump forming in her throat as she saw him dressed in his military uniform. His hair which had been short beforehand now even shorter. To the point that the boy....man in front of her almost didn't resemble the brother she knew.

"Zac," Avery spoke as she uncrossed her arms and moved from her bed swiftly. Moving to where Zac was as he met her halfway, pulling her into a hug that was almost too tight.

"Saved you for last princess," Zac told her softly as he kept his grip on her, like he was afraid to let her go.

"I was afraid you wouldn't come," Avery told him as she pulled away from the hug finally, even if she too was afraid to let him go.

Shaking his head Zac gave her a sad smile. Not the kind that took over his whole face, not the kind she liked.

"I wouldn't leave you without saying goodbye," Zac said as if he was chiding her for thinking such a thing. "The only woman who knows me and knows my heart," he sighed before moving closer to her again. "Of course I'd tell you goodbye."

"I'm not a woman yet," Avery said as she made a face when he called her a woman. "Not going to be a woman until a few months from now when I'm sixteen."

"Close enough to me. When I see you again I'm sure you'll be a woman. Probably someone's queen."

Rolling her eyes Avery shook her head, "No man is ever going to want me as their queen," she told him resolutely. "But...but you're sure you'll come back?" she questioned him again with a raised eyebrow.

"I promised didn't I?" Zac asked her and she nodded her head silently. "I don't break my promises princess."

Avery wanted to reply to him. Tell him that sometimes death especially in times of war didn't care about promises but she never got the chance. A knock sounded on her door before a guard opened it telling Zac that it was time to go.

The lump from earlier appearing in Avery's throat after the guard had left. Growing bigger when Zac turned back to face her with another sad smile on his face.

"Before I go I wanted to give you this," Zac sighed softly as he reached into a pocket on his trousers.

Avery watching silently as he pulled out a single pink rose which he held out to her. Avery reaching out to take it with a shaking hand.

"Put it in your hair later my queen," Zac teased as Avery narrowed her eyes at him. Almost liking it better when he was calling her princess.

But again instead of correcting him she stayed silent only nodding her head before watching as he turned to leave. The door shutting softly behind him and Avery felt tears go down her cheek as he left her room.

She prayed that he kept his promise and came back to her.


	2. Chapter 2

Standing in front of the mirror in the backroom of the church, Avery made a face as she fixed her dress. A dress she wasn't fond of but, then again, white had never been her color.

Yet she had to wear this dress today, had to walk down the aisle and marry a man she didn't want to marry. All to end a war that had been raging on for nearly two years now. A war that had taken the lives of her eldest brothers..all three of them, though Zac's body had never been recovered.

But, from all accounts, it was believed that he too was a dead man. The first of her brothers to die, just like Isaac had been the last and it had been his death that had made Walker agree to a meeting with the King of the hostile kingdom.

A truce being made as well as an agreement that he could have one of the princesses hands in marriage. A deal her father had made on the assumption that he'd want Jessica. She was the pretty sister, the fairer, more graceful woman that she was. 

Upon King Gideon's visit to their kingdom though, he had declared his intent to make Avery his bride. 

So, here she stood, just three short months later about to become a Queen to a man she had no interest in marrying.

She half wished she had run the day she turned sixteen and never looked back, knowing there was no way she could run now.

Surely if she ran now, and was found later, it would mean her head on a silver platter. It was against the law to break a marriage arrangement.

Though, it wasn't against the law to pray that the band of thieves that had been ravaging the countryside as of late somehow would show up at this very church and take her as their hostage.

Avery knew, as sad as it was, she'd rather be the hostage to deplorable men than the wife of a King who had been the reason all of her brothers were dead.

"Are you ready now Avery?" a voice spoke and Avery turned to see her father, not even having heard him come inside.

"I'm not sure I'm ever going to be ready," Avery told him with a sad smile, which he returned.

Walker walked a bit closer to her, reaching out for her hand which she linked into his arm. "You know if Zac hadn't been killed I reckon you would have married him," he spoke softly as if the words hurt him to say. "The arrangement was drawn up months before he gave his intent to leave for the damned war."

"You arranged for me to marry Zac?" Avery asked surprised that she could even speak because his words had sent her through a loop.

Walker nodded his head though as his sad smile turned into a sheepish one. "Your lady mother didn't know of course. If she did it wouldn't have happened but there are just some things your lady mother mustn't know," he spoke and Avery knew he meant that as well as other things like which whore had been the one to bare him Zac.

"Why?" Avery questioned him knowing they didn't have all day for her to interrogate him. They did have to leave this room eventually so that she could marry King Gideon who was waiting on her.

"Because I know things Avery," Walker spoke with a knowledge she had never heard from her father before now. "I know it's not your heart’s desire to marry a king or to even be a queen. Just like I know Zac's heart desires you," he added on and his words sent a chill down Avery's spine.

Avery never realized that Zac had desired her. That he had seen her as more than the sister who wasn't pretty, the sister he could run around the kingdom with, and the sister he had shared a simple chaste kiss with before going to a war and getting himself killed.

"Desired," Avery corrected her father which made him laugh. "Zac's heart desired me," she sighed wishing Zac were still here now. That he had come back to her, that he hadn't died, because if he were still alive then this marriage today wouldn't be taking place.

She'd already be a married woman.

Before any of them could say more though the door to the backroom of the church burst open. Both she and her father turned their heads and Avery felt her heart stop at the sight in front of her.

The Lord, it seemed, had answered her prayers about the thieves finding the church because there in the doorway where three rough looking men.

They were all in clothes that looked like they hadn't been washed or properly ironed in ages. Cloths over their mouths to hide part of their faces as if they were trying to hide their identities and most were, Avery was sure.

Half the thieves they had running around had been men who deserted the war and if caught would be put to death for treason.

Feeling her father grip her a bit tighter, Avery remained frozen as the men advanced into the room. She barely registered their words as one of the men, the one with a blue cloth over his face, instructed the other two on what to do. They were to take Walker and tie him up.

The effort was made hard for them as Avery held onto her father for as long as she could, only letting him go when the man with the blue cloth made his way to her.

Picking her up so easily, even as she began to fight against his grip which he only tightened around her waist. He carried her out of the room which gave Avery a chance to see the carnage that had been done to the church.

The once pretty church now looked like a war had taken place as blood painted the floor, and windows were broken.

"I'm sorry princess," the man muttered to her as he made it outside with her. Avery spotting three horses in the distance. "I never meant to hurt you," he continued to speak as he walked to the horses, his grip on her loosening now that she was no longer fighting him.

Avery feeling too scared to fight him after seeing the blood on the floor of the church.

When they made it to the horses it was then that the man put her down as he eyed her cautiously like he really thought she'd run.

"I'm not a princess," Avery told him defiantly as she locked eyes with him. Seeing now that his eyes were the same shade of brown as hers.

"You're no Queen yet either," the man retorted with just as much defiance in his voice.

"But I will be," Avery told him as she crossed her arms. "King Gideon has probably got his men ready to come out of that church at any moment to kill you. They've probably already murdered your friends."

The man now laughed at Avery's words, "I'm not sure how much good dead men can be at killing," he told her as he moved a bit closer to her. "The blood of King Gideon's guards covered about half the damn church," he revealed, Avery now feeling like she wanted to be sick.

If these men had killed King Gideon's men then she really feared what the other two had done to her father. As well as what had come of her mother, Jessica, and Zoe.

All three having been in the church as well.

But before she had a chance to question the man who had carried her out here the other two men came back. Putting guns and knives into holsters on their clothing before they climbed onto their horses.

"Well are you going to get on the horse princess," the man who had taken her spoke Avery shivering when she realized he was now almost right on top of her. "Or am I going to have to do it for you?"

Turning to glare at the man, Avery only shook her head before getting on the last remaining horse. Making a face when her captor, the man that she reasoned was the ringleader, climbed onto the horse after her.

His arms went around her waist as he took the reins for the horse into his hand. The horse soon took off as they left the church behind.

Riding to whatever place the thieves were staying, Avery almost wished now that she hadn't prayed for this very thing to happen.

When had the Lord ever answered a prayer she had anyway? He had ignored her when she prayed for Zac to come back safe from the war.

He had even ignored her when she prayed for them to find his body so that she could at least see her brother one last time.

But now he had answered her? Let her be taken on her wedding day though she feared in the process of that happening that what was left of her family had been slaughtered.

*****

It was almost nightfall when the band of thieves finally came to a stop at some house hours away from the church from which they had taken Avery.

A house that Avery, just from signs and clues, could tell was near a body of water. She could hear the water as well as smell it because of course even, all these years later, she still had the scent of water ingrained in her memory.

The many days spent out by the lake with Zac still in her brain.

Getting off the horse, Avery watched as the man who had taken her got off as well. His companions had already headed inside of the house.

"Where are we?" Avery asked the man harshly as she turned to him, watching as he pushed down the cloth that had been covering his face.

His head moved up to look at her after she spoke to him, and in the moonlight as she stared at the man fully. There was something familiar about him, about his face which had a bit of a beard there. Like he hadn't shaved in months, his hair longer than any man she had been around.

It was long enough that he could put it up in a ponytail if he so chose but Avery wasn't sure if he would. She hadn't seen any man put there hair up before like women except if they were pirates, but this man wasn't a pirate. He was just a thief who stole and sometimes killed.

"Far away from your kingdom princess," he answered her with a smirk on his face. He stepped closer to her and Avery shivered again before moving away from him, scared that he'd hurt her. 

She had heard stories about how some men of his kind raped women and that was the last thing she needed. She knew if she were raped not even King Gideon would want her. She'd just be more of a shame than she already was.

Glaring, Avery shook her head, "Which Kingdom are we near?" she questioned wondering if he'd at least give her that.

The man only shook his head as he moved away from her. "Best head inside unless you want to freeze and starve in one night," he told her before turning and heading inside.

Avery rolled her eyes at his lack of an answer. But, she knew better than to test him more than she had so she followed him inside the house.

Surprised to see a fire going as one of the men who had been with her captor sat beside it. He was cooking something in a bowl though Avery couldn't see what it was.

"There's a room to the right," the man who had taken her said as he turned to look at her. "If you want to go and freshen up."

"There's even clothes in your size milady," the man at the fire spoke as he looked up at her.

Avery gave him a quizzical look wondering just how there would be clothes in her size here. She had never met these men before in her life.

Then again, this probably wasn't the first time they had taken a poor innocent woman against her will. So, maybe they had left clothes behind. A fact that unsettled Avery.

She kept her thoughts to herself, just silently walking into the room which had a small oil lamp already burning.

Avery's gaze stopped as she looked at what was beside the oil lamp. A vase that held a single pink rose.

The kind of rose she had avoided looking at since Zac died. One of her last good memories of him being when he had given her the pink rose as his parting gift.

"The pink rose was the only thing that kept me sane you know," a voice spoke from behind her and Avery turned around.

Seeing that her captor was now in the room with her. The door shut behind him so his friends couldn't see inside or even hear them talking.

"When I was gone to war. I'd see a pink rose and it made me think of home," the man continued as he stepped closer to Avery as he searched her face looking for something though Avery didn't know what. "Made me think of a girl I had left behind."

"And you couldn't find her after you deserted?" Avery asked him softly. "If your heart desired her enough, that a simple flower reminded you of her, then you couldn't go to her instead of becoming this savage?"

The man laughed at her words as if they hadn't wounded him. "Oh what do you know of my heart woman?" he asked her after his laughing had calmed. "What do you know of my desires?"

Pausing as he spoke it was when he asked the first question that things seemed to click for Avery. Her whole world feeling slightly off balance right now as she stared at the man in front of her.

A man who she knew had looked so familiar to her yet felt like such a stranger at the same time.

"Zachary?" she asked him softly watching as his face changed, like he had finally found what he had been searching for on her face.

Recognition. He had wanted her to recognize him.

"Avie," Zac spoke confirming what she had just found out. His hands going to rest on her cheeks. "I told you when I saw you again you'd be someone's queen," he teased her.

A small laugh escaped Avery as she shook her head despite his hands resting on her cheeks. Though she didn't say anything to him.

Instead she just leaned in to kiss him. Not a simple chaste kiss either like the one he had given her that day near the lake a few years ago.

No, this kiss was sweet, yet so very full of passion, and everything that Avery had wanted to tell him, show him in the years he was gone from her.

Avery knew that she should be questioning, but questions could wait. At least until she got enough of this kiss.

A kiss she had been wanting since the day at the lake after their first kiss.


End file.
